Vista: Worthy, Largely Unexciting — XP Successor Doesn't Break — New Ground on Ease of Use, — But It's Best Windows Yet — A new version of Microsoft Windows, the world's most popular and important computer operating system, will finally arrive for consumers on Jan. 30.

Deal for Beatles on iTunes in works — The worldwide Beatles grapevine is buzzing over the distinct possibility that the long-awaited remastering of the Fab Four's United Kingdom CD back catalogue will finally see the light of day — by June. — As per usual, Apple/EMI is presently mum …

Apple/Beatles Deal on Valentine's Day? — Listening Post reported last week that Steve Jobs would soon announce the Beatles' availability on the iTunes store, now, new details have emerged suggesting that in keeping with Jobs' oft-professed love of the Fab Four, the Beatles catalog …

Newspaper blog boom — reports that newspaper blogs' audience is growing fast (of course, that is in part because so many of them are new): … Note also that the definition of blogs is up for grabs. Many times, newspapers use blogging software as a means to get up news updates and such …

Some Bling for Your Blog — PASTOR BOB HYATT acknowledges that his widget fixation may be getting a little out of control. — On his Web log, Pastor Hyatt, the leader of the Evergreen Community in Portland, Ore., has woven in widgets, or mini-applications, that show a selection of book covers …

The Google Switch: an iPhone killer? — Color us skeptics on this one, but we've got a tipster claiming to have the scoop on Google Switch. This version of the mythical Googlephone is said to be the result of a collaboration with Samsung — not Alpha Networks or HTC.

Cisco's iPhone violates GPL, expert says — An open-source enthusiast is charging Cisco with failing to properly share code in its Linux-based iPhone — Even while Cisco Systems is suing Apple for violating its iPhone trademark, an open-source enthusiast is accusing Cisco itself of infringing copyright in the same product.

The Balkanization of BitTorrent — Mark Cuban has somewhat of a mixed record predicting BitTorrent's future, having once suggested that nobody would ever download HD content over peer-to-peer networks. Obviously, he got that one wrong. But he does have a point when it comes to a growing obstacle to P2P becoming mainstream:

Don't Like the Dancing Cowboys? Results Say You Do — Most online advertisements are becoming less obtrusive and more tailored to the interests of individual Web users. Among the stubborn holdouts are the two-stepping cowboys, frisky rooftop dancers and weird tattoos in ubiquitous Web banners from LowerMyBills.com.

Music industry threatens ISPs over piracy — The music industry opened up a new front in the war on online music piracy yesterday, threatening to sue internet service providers that allow customers to illegally share copyrighted tracks over their networks. — The International Federation …

Time Inc. Lays Off Nearly 300 — Time Inc. laid off nearly 300 people today at its top magazines, including its most profitable title, People, which is shutting down its bureaus in Washington, Miami, Chicago and Austin, Texas. — People is laying off 44 editorial employees …

Review: Six Rootkit Detectors Protect Your System — While many security suites have a basic level of detection, these standalone tools will do a search-and-destroy on the rootkits that may be hiding in your system. — In October 2005, Windows expert Mark Russinovich broke the news …

Comment Guidelines & Feedback Wanted On Commenting — I love that people can comment at Search Engine Land directly within stories. I not only want comments — I want people to contribute links as well. I thought it would be useful to talk more about this, plus get feedback from readers …

Fuse with me — MacFUSE is the new hotness from Google's Mac genius, Amit Singh. It allows developers to quickly implement their own filesystems into Mac OS X. FUSE itself is a cross platform software package. The most exciting plugins for most Mac users are the sshfs and ntfs.

Watching Netflix' 'Watch Now' — I was an early subscriber to Netflix back in the day, and recently signed back up. In the interest of confirming some details of their new 'Watch Now' service, like what client-side software they were using, I asked if they could hook up my account so I could review it, and they very nicely obliged.

Nokia N800; A Real World Review After One Month's Use — N800 Photos Posted a.k.a. Thwarted by My NDA — Sometimes being tight with a company is a double edged sword. Take the recent unveiling of the Nokia N800. I'd been using the device daily for a month but couldn't post the images …

PSD2 Compliance in Zoho Books — The Revised Payment Services Directive, also known as the PSD2, is a set of regulatory guidelines laid down by the European Union (EU) for finance, banking, and payment service companies.

Google Fi - a phone plan, by Google — We felt that most phone plans just weren't made with you in mind. So that's why we built Google Fi with features that real people actually want. Click to learn more.